More than 20,000 festival goers at the Thank You Festival had Merriweather Post Pavilion throbbing and pulsing Thursday night. The Thank You Festival is one of the more unique shows in the area and it celebrates global citizenry through the ever growing EDM music scene. The show featured Tiësto, Above & Beyond, Krewella, Alvin Risk, and more in a display filled with techno music, lights, laser, and confetti.

Presented in partnership with World Childhood Foundation, the multi-act ‘Thank You Festival’ recognizes the pivotal role of U.S. foreign aid in helping to cut global child deaths by nearly one-half since 1990, and emphasizes the topic of child survival and protection.

The ‘Thank You Festival’ focused attention on the world’s children, asking leaders to not only ensure children survive beyond their first years, but also that they have an opportunity to thrive throughout their childhood to reach their development potential. The concert also underscored the fact that today’s youth considers the wellbeing of children across the world to be a human rights imperative.

In continuing their efforts to activate socially-conscious youth about the causes and consequences of extreme poverty, Thank You Festival concert-goers took more than 140,000 online “actions” to call on Dr. Raj Shah, the Administrator of USAID, to increase US aid support to help children everywhere survive and thrive.

As a result, Dr. Shah committed on stage to realign $2.9 billion to end preventable child deaths, $40 million in FY2014 for the Global Partnership for Education, and he committed to working with Congress to allocate an additional $50 million in FY2015 to the Global Partnership for Education This funding will help to save the lives of more than 500,000 children, and help get 29 million children into school.

“To become a global citizen, we must extend our compassion beyond our borders. The United States has played a pivotal role in leading child survival and protection efforts worldwide and this event celebrates that,” said Hugh Evans, CEO of The Global Poverty Project. “But this is also a chance to educate the younger generation and motivate our leaders to act. The bottom line is increased investment in child survival initiatives could ensure that no child dies for the lack of a 30 cent vaccine.”

Globally renowned headliner Tiësto stated, “Through my work with the World Childhood Foundation, I’ve learned about the millions of kids who are battling abuse and even dying from diseases that have known cures. I hope all my fans will join me in working with these amazing organizations to help these children all around the world live and become healthy and strong so they can enjoy their childhoods.”

Princess Madeleine of Sweden, an Ambassador for World Childhood Foundation, who was in the audience last night, stated, “Every child deserves a happy childhood. Yet, children around the world still face insecurity in the form of abuse and sexual exploitation. Together we can help children live a childhood free from disease, violence and abuse on the path to a sustainable world without extreme poverty by 2030.”

Since 1990, U.S. aid dollars have helped to significantly reduce the number of children who die before their fifth birthday. U.S. aid funding has also helped to cut new polio cases from 1000 a day in 1990, to just 1 a day in 2013, preventing millions of children from becoming disabled. Despite the encouraging statistics, 6.6 million children under five still die each year, most from preventable causes. Children from all socioeconomic backgrounds continue to face challenges of exploitation and abuse, preventing them from having a happy and healthy childhood. Concert goers can learn about the role the U.S. has played in helping to ensure children everywhere can live a healthy, full life by visiting globalcitizen.org.

The ‘Thank You Festival,’ is named after World Childhood Foundation’s global initiative Thank You by Childhood. The event builds on the success of the 2012 and 2013 Global Citizen Festivals on the Great Lawn in Central Park in New York City and the Global Citizen Nights concert series, which launched in March 2013 with a concert by The Fray in Austin, TX.

This event was produced by AEG Live in partnership with Global Citizen and World Childhood Foundation. It is generously supported by the United Postcode Lotteries and Clear Channel, and is promoted in association with Glow Washington, DC.

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